Wednesday, May 26, 2010

1.0.2 Patch Notes

Version 1.0.2
-------------
General

- Marchers are now in the outpost
- Fixed Plated Greaves not working.
- Implemented functionality for "Buy All Components"
* Clicking this button will attempt to purchase all components and sub-components needed to complete the recipe.
- Fixed several stringtable entries
- Fixed blockers behind the Legion fountain to help people who teleport back there
- Updated some cliffs so wards will not sink into them anymore
- Fixed "Helm of the Black Legion" appearing incorrectly on the shop due to it's length
- Tweaked some weirdness with collisions in the pathing code
- Fixed the pause dropdown so it now has the correct title

- Following functionality added: Right click on a buddy or clanmate and select "Follow" to follow them. You will join and leave any games they join or leave until you unfollow them, quit the game, or are in a game that starts.
* Thanks to __VIking for the idea
- Players attempting to re-connect to servers they got disconnected from will no longer be unable to join them due to PSR restrictions for times when they have recently played a game and their PSR was not updated before connecting to the server.
- Fixed matchmaking to auto focus the channel they join in on
- Removed the "stats reset by release" notification from the reset stats form
- Fixed an issue where blank lines would appear on IMs when one of the players chatting would join or leave a game.
- Fixed a bug where the No Stats icon would not show up in notifications for games that were "No Stats"
- The game will no longer display an additional disconnect message indicating that the hero was removed and assets distributed to their team when a player with no team is kicked from the game
- Rearranged the icons on the bottom of Public Games interface to make more space and fix alignments
- Updated Min/Max PSR Filter to be a little more lenient, for example selecting <1500 and >1600 now checks if it the server is <=1500 or >=1600.
- Tweaked the Public Game interface so that it can now display the actual advanced game options when hovering over the "Advanced Options" icon
- Added a "Hide Restricted Games" option to the Public Game interface
* When enabled any games a player is ineligible for due to having a leaver status or having a PSR outside the range of that game will be hidden
* Credit to Bangerz for the implementation
- Added the Premium Account icon to the Icon Key tooltip
- Added more ping filter values (from a max of 270 to a max of 360) and added more PSR values (1900 and 1950).
- Added game hint indicating players can disable notifications in game via the options menu
- Logging in with "Invisible Mode" will now always bring focus to the "Status" channel, previously it wouldn't the first time logging in
- Removed requirement to enter a reason when banning someone via "/bl add nickname", it now defaults to the reason "None" if none is specified
- Fixed an issue where the banlist reason was not updated properly unless the player logged out first
- Using "/r" will only reply to the last whisper received, and will no longer reply to the last buddy or clan whisper


Matchmaking

- Added maximum spread setting for matchmaking
* This will ensure that you are not forced to play with players far above or below your rating
- Restrict matchmaking regions to just USW, USE, EU
- Improve tracking of matchmaking failure rates and player disconnections


Heroes

Bubbles
- Fixed a glitch when you had a body effect on and threw the shell
- Can now use Shell Surf's teleport while under the effects of Take Cover
- Take Cover now triggers off tower hits
- Initial radius of Kelp Field changed from 600 to 400

Chipper
- Rocket Barrage damage reduced from 105/130/155/180 to 85/115/145/180
- Sawblade Showdown cooldown set to 50 seconds at all levels (from 60/45/30)

Fayde
- Stances will no longer reset when she dies

Gauntlet
- Completely reworked, still a dev hero. Let us know what you think on the forums.

Night Hound
- Updated the tooltip for Smoke Bomb to explain that he cannot attack towers while in the cloud

Scout
- Marksman Shot will no longer place an infinite life state on the target

Friday, May 21, 2010

1.0.1 Changelog notes - Bubbles is here


Version 1.0.1
-------------

Matchmaking
- Fixed average wait time and percent successful matches stat tracking for matchmaking
- Added some matchmaker logging
- Fixed substitutions not working properly


- Tweaked some oddities in the pathing code
* Heroes might 'stick' on each other slightly again. We are developing a more permanent solution
- Toggling autocast and attack abilities no longer interrupt any current actions


Items

Harkon's Blade
- No longer stacks with Lifeleech & other attack modifiers

Nome's Wisdom
- Recipe cost from 600 to 200

Plated Greaves
- The activated effect can now apply to all allied non-hero units (including player controlled units).

Puzzlebox
- Recipe cost from 1000 to 1100


Heroes

Added New Legion Int hero, Bubbles, inspired by Puck the Faerie Dragon
* Fun Fact: The voice of this hero was recorded by Robert Jadah, who also voiced Morla The Thousand Year-Old Turtle for 'The Neverending Story'

Balphagore
- Un-Dev
- Fixed Recommended Items
- Base armor lowered by 2
- Demonic Pathogen silence from 1/1.5/2/2.5 seconds to 1/2/3/4 seconds
- Demonic Pathogen damage from 100 magic DPS to 60 magic DPS
- Corpse Conversion cooldown from 30 to 20
- Gold bounty from minions from 21/26/36/41 to 10/13/18/20
- Minions now have 3 Magic Armor
- Now takes 30 seconds for charges on his ult to start disappearing
- His ultimate now gains 0.6 charges per 1% of enemy mana spent (increased from 0.5)

Bloodhunter
- Blood Sense now grants full vision of low HP targets

Deadwood
- Uproot's Mana Cost from 60 to 30
- Uproot's charges from 5/6/7/8 to 5 at all levels
- Willowmaker now casts 100ms faster

Devourer
- Armor from 1.96 to 2.96

Engineer
- Base STR from 22 to 20
- Base INT from 19 to 21

Fayde
- Scythe Stance now causes Cull to stun and Burning Shadows to destroy mana
- Shadow Stance now causes Cull to destroy mana and Burning Shadows to stun
- Fayde now starts in Scythe Stance by default (This makes Reflection deal Physical damage by default, even when stances are unleveled)

Hellbringer
- STR growth from 2.5 to 2.1
- AGI growth from 1.0 to 1.2
- INT growth from 2.7 to 2.9

Legionnaire
- Armor from 1.8 to 2.8

Madman
- Stalk cooldown lowered by 1

Nymphora
- Grace of the Nymph now only dispels from player-controlled unit damage
- Teleport no longer displays graphic/sfx to enemies when in fog

Pandamonium
- Cannonball now snares by 60% for 4 seconds instead of stunning when missed

Slither
- Toxin Wards now have 1/1/2/2 charges for placement, decreased from 1/2/2/3
- Toxin Wards attack effect changed from -10% Movespeed to -25 Movespeed at all levels
- Fixed tool tip of Toxin Wards displaying the incorrect amount of health

Swiftblade
- Counter-Attack no longer uses real attacks, meaning it will not trigger things like critical strike, life steal, or Frostburn. It now simply deals damage equal to Swiftblade's base attack damage.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Hon is now retail - Version 1.0.0



Message from [S2]Maliken
"The time is upon us to make more content in the form of heroes, items, features, and maps.  You say, how can that be?  Heroes of Newerth's beta process was actually a test pilot for how the game will be supported beyond retail.  What does that mean?  Just because you have to have a purchased account to continue to play HoN after Wednesday, May 12th @ 4:00pm EST (-5 GMT), it doesn't mean you should expect that version to be the last and final version.  HoN is a service.  It will never truly be finished and that means you can count on lots of additions to the game and consistent patching long after the game "goes retail".

Don't miss out on all the greatness yet to come by pre-purchasing now @ https://www.heroesofnewerth.com/purchase_account.php

Here is a sneak peak of things to come:

 •  Consistent NEW Content Patches
 •  Arranged Team Matchmaking
 •  Full Scale Support for Competitive Play (many tournaments and more in-game features to come)
 •  Achievements
 •  New Game Modes
 •  SDK (includes Map Editor) - Empowering players to create their own games and different modes.
 •  The DREAM Program - soon to be released @ http://dream.heroesofnewerth.com

Heroes of Newerth will only get better and we want you along for the ride.  We appreciate all the help in testing the game over the past year and hope you have enjoyed it as much as we have.  Hopefully we will see you all throughout the long, fun ride ahead; its going to be amazing.

My sincerest thanks and best wishes,

Maliken"

Also with the retail release the new patch has been released, here is the changelog:

Version 1.0.0
Release Build
-------------

Bug Fixes

- Fixed terminating players properly ingame when they left
- Fixed disconnection caused by the terminated player message
- Fixed upside down taskbar icon under Linux
- Fixed matchmaking giving improper point values
- Fixed the black and white box when picking a dev hero
- Fixed MinPSR/MaxPSR not being reset back to 0 when a game ends
- Rate of passive income is now adjusted when a player terminates (Higher with less players)
- Cleaned up create game dialog
- Added a frame that holds the disconnect button on the loading screen
- Updated tooltip description for hardcore mode so it doesn't say items are dropped
- Tweaked Linux resource auto-reloading


Heroes

New Dev hero, Gauntlet

Balphagore
- Minions spawned by Balphagore's ult will now die if their target dies
- Won't eat Items, Wildsoul's Bear, or Mechanical units anymore

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

GosuGamers and SteelSeries present HoN World Cup with $40,000 prize

GosuGamers and SteelSeries present HoN World Cup with $40,000 prize


In celebration of the launch of Heroes of Newerth and the upcoming 2010 FIFA World Cup, SteelSeries and GosuGamers are proud to present the SteelSeries HoN World Cup.

As players of national football teams around the world prepare for the premier competition in their sport, you can prepare for and take part in the premier competition of our very own eSport. The SteelSeries HoN World Cup boasts a whopping $40,000 prize pool, and offers chances to win cold hard cash for top competitive players, casual gamers, replay enthusiasts, and soccer fanatics alike.

No World Cup would be complete without spectacular coverage and commentary. So, in addition to the exciting launch of our HoN section on GosuGamers, we can announce that the one and only Toby "TobiWanKenobi" Dawson will be partnering up with Honcast.com as a guest on the live shoutcasts of the tournament’s most anticipated matches!

Each week Honcast will be taking votes from the GosuGamers community on the most popular match to shoutcast from a selection of that week’s most anticipated matches. Now without further ado, here are the details of the SteelSeries HoN World Cup.

HoN World Cup Format
Qualification
GosuGamers will be holding qualifiers for each of the 5 main regions:

- Southeast Asia Qualifier *
- Eastern European Qualifier
- Western Europe & Africa Qualifier
- North & South America Qualifier
- Asia, Oceania & Mixed Qualifier


* = Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines through Garena

Tournament registration will begin on May 19th and close on June 1st so don’t be late in registering!

Registration for the Southeast Asia Qualifier will be on a first-come, first-serve basis with a maximum of 128 teams composed of 5 members each. We will be receiving and distributing Closed Beta keys from Garena to those 128 teams so they can compete in the tournament once registration closes.

A select number of top teams from each qualifier tournament will be admitted to the Group Stage of 64. Each region’s number of qualification slots will depend on the proportion of registered teams that belong to that region and will be determined once registration ends, so help make sure that your region is well-represented to get the maximum amount of qualification slots!

Group stage
The 64 qualified teams will battle it out “World Cup-style” in 16 groups of 4 teams with a Bo1 format, and the top 2 teams of each group will advance to the next phase, the playoffs!

Playoffs
A bracket featuring the remaining 32 teams will give us the thrills, excitement and drama that only elimination playoffs can provide, and through the chaos we will crown the HoN World Cup Champions! The playoffs will be played in a double-elimination tournament bracket. Best of three (Bo3) for all rounds in the Winner Bracket, while the first two rounds of the Loser Bracket will be best of one (Bo1). All the rounds thereafter are best of tree (Bo3). The Grand Final is played best of five (Bo5) with the winning team starts up 1-0.

Prize pool
1st Place - $10,000 + Full SteelSeries Package *
2nd Place - $5,000
3rd Place - $3,000
4th Place - $2,000
5th to 8th - $800
9th to 16th - $500
17th to 32nd - $300
33rd to 64th - $200

* = (Choice of Headset, Keyboard, Mouse and Mousepad)

5 SteelSeries Siberia v2 Headsets for each regional qualifiers winners will be handed out.

Some of you will realize that the total prizes outlined above fall just short of $40,000. Don’t worry, you will not be short-changed! In addition to the run-of-the-mill prizes awarded to the tournament’s standout performers, we will be awarding cash prizes to the winners of three fun side competitions!

SteelSeries Mousepad Design Contest
In addition to the upcoming announcement of their HoN-themed product line, SteelSeries will be offering GosuGamers members the chance to immortalize themselves on one of their custom HoN QCK mousepads. Registered members of the GosuGamers community will be able to submit their HoN concept artwork to SteelSeries and one lucky person’s fan art will be chosen! Full contest details will be announced soon on http://www.facebook.com/SteelSeries so become a fan and don’t miss out on this one time rare opportunity!

World Cup Pick'em
We know a lot of you are excited about the upcoming World Cup in South Africa, and there’s nothing more fun than supporting your nation or favorite team by picking it to win it all. Each participating team in the HoN World Cup will be asked to pick the nation that they think will win the 2010 FIFA World Cup this summer upon registration. The teams which correctly pick the World Cup Champions will automatically be entered into a random lottery in which one lucky team will win $1000!

2 additional community contests with prizes will be announced in the next few weeks, so stay tuned to GosuGamers.net for more information on upcoming events!

Tournament rules
A detailed list of the tournament rules and complete registration instructions will be announced in the next few days!

With 64 paying placements and ways for even the spectators and football hooligans to net some prizes, the SteelSeries HoN World Cup is certain to be a fun, memorable, and profitable celebration of the launch of Heroes of Newerth and this summer’s World Cup. So team up with your friends, prepare for the imminent Pandamonium, and follow the event on our new Heroes of Newerth section to find out which teams can bend it like Ophelia!

For more information on the Tournament please visit GosuGamers.net/hon

Monday, May 10, 2010

0.3.6 Patch Notes - Live within the hour



If you read the early notes from the Test Client, please re-read these as there are some significant changes!

This should be live within the hour. The chat server will have to be reset, so it will go down right before the patch goes live.

Please remember that MANY MANY mods will be broken, as with every patch.


Version 0.3.6
-------------

Game Modes

- Added Dev Hero Mode
* When enabled, Dev Hero Mode allows work-in-progress "development" heroes to be played
* All future S2 Hero additions are going to be added as "dev heroes," this allows us to get feedback on a large scale and evaluate balance before including the hero in the stable hero pool
* Dev hero mode must be enabled when hosting games. It can be filtered in the game list. Dev heroes will not be used in matchmaking or competitive tournaments
- Added new advanced game option "Tournament Rules"
* When enabled, allows the host to specify in the game lobby which team gets first ban
* Only affects BP and BD gamemodes
- Added "Hardcore Mode" advanced game option
* No passive gold/sec gain
* A creep/hero deny results in 0 experience for the enemy team
* A tower deny results in 0 gold for the enemy team
- "Item Drop" advanced game option now drops all items on death.
* Items dropped on death cannot be picked up by couriers, sold, or killed on the ground.
* Items dropped on death can be picked up and used by anyone.
- Added 5 seconds to each players pick time in Random Draft (25 -> 30)
- Added 5 seconds to transition between bans and picks in Random Draft (15 -> 20)

Important Bug Fixes


- When using Runes of Blight on a tree, heroes will now approach from the correct side. (Will now no longer go all the way around a tree to eat it)
- Heroes are much less likely to keep blocking each other as they try to run past each other (HUGS!)
- Fixed ability tooltips sometimes getting stuck on screen
- Fixed an issue causing buying while dead to sometimes not work
- Abilities used from in the fog will no longer originate from the 0,0 position
* This includes Devourer's Hook, Electrician's Grip, Pollwog Priest's Tongue Tied, Puppet Master's Puppeteer's Hold and Voodoo Puppet, and Witch Slayer's Mana Drain
- Fixed sound system/voicemanager interactions that were causing crashes upon sound system restart
- You can now drop an item into an inventory spot with a building under it


Matchmaking 2.0

- Matchmaking has received some serious revisions that should drastically improve match making quality. Please help us further perfect our match making system by giving it a try and leaving feedback on the forums
* Reworked how matches are formed to more consistently replace players who fail to load and to decrease time to find matches for players with exceptionally high or low SMR ratings
* Players new to matchmaking must complete 5 provisional matches, in which they will be matched with other new players. If not enough new players are available, they will eventually be matched with regular players.
* Players now have the option to set their initial standing according to general skill level, which affects the types of players they will be matched against. The three options are Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced.
* Solo matchmaking uses Banning Draft (BD)


Ingame Changes

- Added a new keybinding: Direct Pathing
* When held down and an order is given (Move, Attack, Cast, etc) will move the hero in a direct path towards where you click no matter what is in the way. Ignores cliffs, heroes, and creeps. Useful for chasing through the woods or pushing yourself against a cliff to cast into the river!
- Re-arranged some of the shop to put modifiers into the correct (bottom) shop. This includes all lifesteal items. Brutalizer and Lightning items are now in the Combat shop. Be wary of your hotkeys!
- If you buy an item on a courier then transfer that item to your hero, you can now sell that item for its full value within the 15 second sellback period
- Added game option "Minimap Rightclick" (default on). When disabled, the player cannot right-click on the minimap.
- The game will no longer display an incorrect disconnect message indicating that the hero was removed and assets distributed to their team if the disconnected player was a referee or spectator
- Fixed disconnect messages appearing twice when a player disconnects in game
- Calling a vote to remake, pause or kick (through the console) before the pre-match game phase will no longer work. (ie. only after the players are loaded into the map can they call these.)
- If displaying chat timestamps were enabled in game, various game messages sent to both teams were not being timestamped (disconnects, Kongor kills, Barracks destruction, etc). These messages now display the timestamp properly if the client has this option enabled.
- New death for the legion main building
- Finally took down our Christmas lights...
- New Hellbourne sounds and effects for buildings
- Random small chest sound/model fixes
- The game option "Show exp numbers" is now on by default for new installations.
- Added an option "Center Camera on Respawn" that allows users to toggle whether or not the camera will automatically focus on their hero after respawning
- Unpause now plays a noise so players are aware
- Fixed some neutral NPC sounds playing globally
- Updated map to remove texture seams
- Added a visible 'corpse' for NPCs dying
- Heroes can no longer pickup runes while stunned
- Referees are now treated as spectators
* Fixes the fog issue, allows them to see the scoreboard, allows them to talk with other referees and spectators
- Added some environmental sound effects on Caldavar
- Double Tap returns!
- Fixed the sound bug where muting someone might not always work
- Restrict most actions while the game is paused
- Fixed the "Share All" courier button to reset its state at the start of every game
- Fixed a bug that occurred when spectators used the "Disable Fog of War" or "Lock Camera" options would see those settings carry over into the the next game they joined or played
- Fixed some tooltips for items in the shop
- Fixed spectators at 1920x1080 resolution

Pre-Game Changes

- Hero icons no-longer react to mouseovers/clicks when there's no hero
- The loading race values now start at 1 and end at 10, the old race values should no longer appear when loading the next game
- Pressing ALT in the game lobby will now toggle the chat mode between "Team" and "All" chat modes.
- Moved the Ping/Players/Version labels in the game lobby a bit to the right as we weren't making use of the space and server names with long names like those we use for South Africa overlapped into these labels
- Voice chat indicator/mute button shows up in the hero picker/etc. now (on the inner side of the hero name)
- Pressing the "All/Team" button in the game lobby will now set focus to the chat input line
- Lobby now has sounds for actions (kick, join etc)
- Increase the max spectator slots to 10
- Fixed the Alternate Picking crash
- The host option "Disband" has been changed to "Disconnect", Upon disconnecting the game server will assign another player as the host and print a message to the game lobby indicating the transfer of hosting privileges


General Changes

- Replays now begin recording during the picking phase
- Removed the "Tier" filters, columns and inputs from the game browser and create game interface
- Added filters, sortable columns and all inputs for Min/Max PSR to the game browser and create game interface
* Players may now specify a Min/Max PSR range when creating a game. Min/Max PSR games will appear normally as they would in the game browser and other players may join a game if their PSR falls within 2% of the range the game server Min/Max PSR is set to. (This means a player with 1471 PSR should be able to make it into a game marked Min 1500, and a 1734 player would be able to join a game marked as Max 1700, but those are the very edge of the 2% tolerance, so anything higher or lower would be rejected.)
- Games outside of a player's PSR range are grayed out in the game browser similar to the way "No Leaver" games appear to a player with leaver status. If no range is specified when the game is created then no range is enforced. If a player is invited to a game, the server ignores the PSR restrictions for them allowing friends to play in games they may not normally be able to be playing
- Added Min/Max PSR to the /gi or /gameinfo commands
- The players PSR is now retrieved and stored locally on the client when logging in, and is accessible through the UI_CMD() GetPSR()
- Removed the ticks, grinds, blips and whatnot that were playing when the game started up
- Added an option "Disable Background Effects" that allows users to toggle whether or not all the background lobby effects and animations are played. (Credit to Pancakeslp for the original mod)
- Fixed some buddy request/add notifications playing sounds a bunch of times when logging in if a player had those notifications saved in their history
- The Notification Duration slider under options->interface now sets the duration (1-15 seconds) a notification is displayed for
- Fixed a number of incorrectly labeled tooltips on the options menu. Disabled the "Health/Mana Bar Scale" in the options
- Removed the "Options" menu from the F10 in game menu
- Fixed "Add PlayerName" buttons on options menu to align properly and correctly add the player clicked on
- Increased max size of joinable channels to 30
- Using the slash command /join "password" will now attempt to join the channel with the password specified. (Anything in between the quotes at the end becomes the password)
- Fixed some issues in the client/interface causing the change password dialogue to not work
- Fixed the lock/unlocked tooltip for hosts to display the correct tip (was previously showing the opposite tooltip it should have been showing)
- Players can now select Logon/Logoff and Join/Leave Game notification settings for clan members separately from the notifications they select for their friends
- Fixed an issue where notifications were not being saved to the history properly
- Fixed the default notification time to be 10 seconds instead of 10000
- Updated sub-account description
- Removed "Show Menu Transitions" from the options menu as the option is not currently being used
- Fixed iris closing sound being heard on disconnect
- Fixed "/r" to not reply to a clan whisper automatically with "/c m", instead it will reply directly to the sender with a "/w PlayerName" just like how "/b m" works
- Trying out new color for the selected item in listboxes
- Fixed the "Show Winner" button on the match stats screen to correctly display and announce the team who won
- Fixed sound driver list sometimes showing the current driver incorrectly
* This means the sound system will only restart if it is indeed necessary
- Fixed a couple places where linux system class was using incorrect character conversions
- Added console command "precacheworld ". So for example type "precacheworld caldavar" to precache its resources
- Removed cvar browser_maxPing as it was not being used
- Invisible Mode will now remember its state the next time the game re-loads
- Players in "Invisible Mode" will no longer auto join default HoN or Clan channels when leaving a game, allowing them to properly remain in a hidden state
- Clicking on the clock in the system bar now toggles between 12 hour and 24 hour display
- Re-arranged Public and Create Game interfaces to make more space and added icons/checkboxes for the new "Hardcore" and "Dev Heroes" game options
- Moved "Alt Hero Picking" on the Create Game interface to an Advanced Option, which is what it is actually categorized as


Items

Bananas
- Can now be sold for 500 gold

Doombringer
- Can no longer be transferred to your stash, manually dropped on the ground, or given to teammates.

Frostburn
- Snare is now 5% a charge and stacks 3 times

Frostwolf Skull
- Recipe cost increased by 500

Geometer's Bane
- Now spawns illusions in a triangle and randomizes the position of the hero on use

Nome's Wisdom
- Rebalanced
* Strength lowered from 6 to 4
* Agility lowered from 6 to 4
* Intelligence lowered from 16 to 14
* +Damage lowered from 10 to 6
* % Mana Regen removed
* Aura armor lowered from 4 to 3
* Healing from the Aura tweaked so that if the healing exceeds your max health, a shield of equal value is applied for 10 seconds.

Nullfire Blade
- Fixed so it can now properly dispel Jeraziah's Protective Charm
- Recipe will sell for the correct value again

Plated Greaves
- Cooldown increased to 30s, duration lowered to 15s
- AOE effect now grants +20% damage but only affects allied non-player controlled creeps
- AOE effect no longer grants armor

Stormspirit
- Can now target all heroes (allied and enemy). Can no longer target Kongor.

Tokens
- Can no longer be sold


Heroes

- Added Balphagore as a dev hero. Must host games with the dev hero option enabled to play him
* Feedback on this hero is appreciated, as we are still fine-tuning balance and making necessary adjustments

Behemoth

- Fixed weird shadows with Fissure

Blacksmith
- Fixed some issues with multicast and Frenzy

Chipper
- Voice added. Nuts.
- Tar Toss will no longer apply its slow to Magic Immune units
- Sawblade Showdown's Staff of the Master upgrade no longer provides a static 70% movement speed slow. Instead, units who walk into the saw blades will have a 4 second snare applied to them that starts at 90% and quickly reduces in strength over the duration.
- Sawblade Showdown won't slow couriers anymore

Deadwood

- Clearcutting now causes trees to die with a cooler animation.

Madman

- Barrel Roll will once again grant invulnerability during the duration of the roll

Magmus
- Lava Surge once again provides invulnerability during travel time

Engineer
- Ult to 85s at all levels from 90/75/60

Fayde
- Voice added
- Updated description
- A ton of effect changes
- Slice renamed Cull
- Illusions from Burning Shadows now attacks much faster
- Illusions from Burning Shadows are back to full size
- Illusions from Burning Shadows can no longer be selected or show healthbars
- Cooldown on switching between Scythe and Shadow Stance removed
- Fayde now starts in Shadow Stance
- Charges on Shadow/Scythe Stance increased to 2,3,4,5
- Reflection
* Manacost increased to 150,175,200 from 150
* Duration changed to 30,35,40 from 40 at all levels
* Reflection stealth state will no longer have charges that do nothing
* Shadow Cripple now reduces all healing on the target by 50% while it's active
* Shadow Cripple is no longer dispellable

Glacius

- Updated Ice Imprisonment tooltip to explain that it lasts 10 seconds when cast on creeps

Keeper of the Forest

- Updated Root effect to match the area better

Legionnaire
- Added custom sounds for his charge

Maliken
- Updated recommended items

Ophelia
- Command will no longer give the bonus HP to couriers she has bought or to heroes/herself in weird situations

Pandamonium

- Voice added

Plague Rider

- Voice added

Pollywog
- Units under the effects of Morph can no longer evade or deflect attacks
- Cooldown of Wards changed from 110/95/80 to 100

Pyromancer

- Fixed a bug causing ult to trigger Nullstone twice (causing the cool down to decrease too much)

Soul Reaper

- Rewrote some tooltips

Witch Slayer

- Units under the effects of Miniaturization can no longer evade or deflect attacks
- Fixed a bug causing ult to trigger Nullstone twice (causing the cool down to decrease too much)

Valkyrie

- Call of the Valkyrie will now determine the close-range target to get hit twice at the time the ability is used, rather than after a 0.5 second delay
- Tweaked leap distance from 630,690,780,840 to 630,720,780,870

Vindicator
- Voice added

Voodoo Jester
- Cask now bounces for 2/4/6/8 times, instead of the incorrect 2/4/5/8 times

Warbeast
- Metamorphosis will no longer apply to his courier

Wildsoul

- Wild will no longer apply to his courier

Zephyr
- Correctly credit him for damage that his ult does

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Retail patch preview


These changes are not the finnal version, the notes are taken from the test client. This patch will be released in this or sligtly changed form on the may 12th.

Game Modes

- Matchmaking now uses BD
- Added new advanced game option "Tournament Rules"
* When enabled, allows the host to specify in the game lobby which team gets first ban
* Only affects BP and BD gamemodes
- Added "Hardcore Mode" advanced game option
* No passive gold/sec gain
* A creep/hero deny results in 0 experience for the enemy team
* A tower deny results in 0 gold for the enemy team
- "Item Drop" advanced game option now drops all items on death.
* Items dropped on death cannot be picked up by couriers, sold, or killed on the ground.
* Items dropped on death can be picked up and used by anyone.

Important Bug Fixes


- When using Runes of Blight on a tree, heroes will now approach from the correct side. (Will now no longer go all the way around a tree to eat it)
- Heroes are much less likely to keep blocking each other as they try to run past each other (HUGS!)
- Fixed ability tooltips sometimes getting stuck on screen
- Fixed buying while dead
- Abilities used from in the fog will no longer originate from the 0,0 position
* This includes Devourer's Hook, Electrician's Grip, Pollwog Priest's Tongue Tied, Puppet Master's Puppeteer's Hold and Voodoo Puppet, and Witch Slayer's Mana Drain
- Fixed sound system/voicemanager interactions that were causing crashes upon sound system restart
- You can now drop an item into an inventory spot with a building under it


Matchmaking

- Changed how people are matched together to generate better games
- People now have to pick an initial setting to use Matchmaking based on their skill


Ingame Changes

- Added a new keybinding: Direct Pathing
* When held down and an order is given (Move, Attack, Cast, etc) will move the hero in a direct path towards where you click no matter what is in the way. Ignores cliffs, heroes, and creeps. Useful for chasing through the woods or pushing yourself against a cliff to cast into the river!
- Re-arranged some of the shop to put modifers into the correct (bottom) shop. This includes all lifesteal items. Brutalizer and Lightning items are now in the Combat shop. Be wary of your hotkeys!
- If you buy an item on a courier then transfer that item to your hero, you can now sell that item for its full value within the 15sec sellback period
- Added game option "Minimap Rightclick" (default on). When disabled, the player cannot rightclick on the minimap.
- The game will no longer display an incorrect disconnect message indicating that the hero was removed and assets distributed to their team if the disconnected player was a referee or spectator
- Fixed disconnect messages appearing twice when a player disconnects in game
- Calling a vote to remake, pause or kick (through the console) before the pre-match game phase will no longer work. (ie. only after the players are loaded into the map can they call these.)
- If displaying chat timestamps were enabled in game, various game messages sent to both teams were not being timestamped (disconnects, Kongor kills, Barracks destruction, etc). These messages now display the timestamp properly if the client has this option enabled.
- New death for the legion main building
- Finally took down our Christmas lights...
- New Hellbourne sounds and effects for buildings
- Random small chest sound/model fixes
- The game option "Show exp numbers" is now on by default for new installations.
- Added an option "Center Camera on Respawn" that allows users to toggle whether or not the camera will automatically focus on their hero after respawning
- Unpause now plays a noise so players are aware
- Fixed some neutral NPC sounds playing globally
- Updated map to remove texture seams
- Added a visible 'corpse' for NPCs dying
- Heroes can no longer pickup runes while stunned
- Referees are now treated as spectators
* Fixes the fog issue, allows them to see the scoreboard, allows them to talk with other referees and spectators
- Added some environmental sound effects on Caldavar
- Double Tap returns!
- Fixed the sound bug where muting someone might not always work
- Restrict most actions while the game is paused
- Fixed the "Share All" courier button to reset its state at the start of every game
- Fixed a bug that occurred when spectators used the "Disable Fog of War" or "Lock Camera" options would see those settings carry over into the the next game they joined or played
- Fixed some tooltips for items in the shop


Pre-Game Changes

- Hero icons no-longer react to mouseovers/clicks when there's no hero
- The loading race values now start at 1 and end at 10, the old race values should no longer appear when loading the next game
- Pressing ALT in the game lobby will now toggle the chat mode between "Team" and "All" chat modes.
- Moved the Ping/Players/Version labels in the game lobby a bit to the right as we weren't making use of the space and server names with long names like those we use for South Africa overlapped into these labels
- Voice chat indicator/mute button shows up in the hero picker/etc. now (on the inner side of the hero name)
- Pressing the "All/Team" button in the game lobby will now set focus to the chat input line
- Lobby now has sounds for actions (kick, join etc)
- Increase the max spectator slots to 10
- Fixed the Alternate Picking crash


General Changes


- Replays now begin recording during the picking phase
- Removed the "Tier" filters, columns and inputs from the game browser and create game interface
- Added filters, sortable columns and all inputs for Min/Max PSR to the game browser and create game interface
* Players may now specify a Min/Max PSR range when creating a game. Min/Max PSR games will appear normally as they would in the game browser and other players may join a game if their PSR falls within 2% of the range the game server Min/Max PSR is set to. (This means a player with 1471 PSR should be able to make it into a game marked Min 1500, and a 1734 player would be able to join a game marked as Max 1700, but those are the very edge of the 2% tolerance, so anything higher or lower would be rejected.)
- Games outside of a player's PSR range are grayed out in the game browser similar to the way "No Leaver" games appear to a player with leaver status. If no range is specified when the game is created then no range is enforced. If a player is invited to a game, the server ignores the PSR restrictions for them allowing friends to play in games they may not normally be able to be playing
- Added Min/Max PSR to the /gi or /gameinfo commands
- The players PSR is now retrieved stored locally on the client when logging in, and is accessible through the UI_CMD() GetPSR()
- Removed the ticks, grinds, and blips and whatnot that were playing when the game started up
- Added an option "Disable Background Effects" that allows users to toggle whether or not all the background lobby effects and animations are played. (Credit to Pancakeslp for the original mod)
- Fixed some buddy request/add notifications playing sounds a bunch of times when logging in if a player had those notifications saved in their history
- The Notification Duration slider under options->interface now sets the duration (1-15 seconds) a notification is displayed for
- Fixed a number of incorrectly labeled tooltips on the options menu. Disabled the "Health/Mana Bar Scale" in the options
- Removed the "Options" menu from the F10 in game menu
- Fixed "Add PlayerName" buttons on options menu to align properly and correctly add the player clicked on
- Increased max size of joinable channels to 30
- Using the slash command /join "password" will now attempt to join the channel with the password specified. (Anything in between the quotes at the end becomes the password)
- Fixed some issues in the client/interface causing the change password dialogue to not work
- Fixed the lock/unlocked tooltip for hosts to display the correct tip (was previously showing the opposite tooltip it should have been showing)
- Players can now select Logon/Logoff and Join/Leave Game notification settings for clan members separately from the notifications they select for their friends
- Fixed an issue where notifications were not being saved to the history properly
- Fixed the default notification time to be 10 seconds instead of 10000
- Updated sub-account description
- Removed "Show Menu Transitions" from the options menu as the option is not currently being used
- Fixed iris closing sound being heard on disconnect
- Fixed "/r" to not reply to a clan whisper automatically with "/c m", instead it will reply directly to the sender with a "/w PlayerName" just like how "/b m" works
- Trying out new color for the selected item in listboxes
- Fixed the "Show Winner" button on the match stats screen to correctly display and announce the team who won
- Fixed sound driver list sometimes showing the current driver incorrectly
* This means the sound system will only restart if it is indeed necessary
- Fixed a couple places where linux system class was using incorrect character conversions
- Added console command "precacheworld ". So for example type "precacheworld caldavar" to precache its resources
- Removed cvar browser_maxPing as it was not being used
- Invisible Mode will now remember its state the next time the game re-loads
- Players in "Invisible Mode" will no longer auto join default HoN or Clan channels when leaving a game, allowing them to properly remain in a hidden state
- Clicking on the clock in the system bar now toggles between 12 hour and 24 hour display


Items


Bananas
- Can now be sold for 500 gold

Doombringer
- Can no longer be transferred to your stash, manually dropped on the ground, or given to teammates.

Frostburn
- Snare is now 5% a charge and stacks 3 times

Frostwolf Skull
- Recipe cost increased by 500

Geometer's Bane
- Now spawns illusions in a triangle and randomizes the position of the hero on use

Nome's Wisdom
- Rebalanced
* Strength lowered from 6 to 4
* Agility lowered from 6 to 4
* Intelligence lowered from 16 to 14
* +Damage lowered from 10 to 6
* % Mana Regen removed
* Aura armor lowered from 4 to 3
* Healing from the Aura tweaked so that if the healing exceeds your max health, a shield of equal value is applied for 5 seconds.

Nullfire Blade
- Fixed so it can now properly dispel Jeraziah's Protective Charm
- Recipe will sell for the correct value again

Plated Greaves

- Cooldown increased to 30s, duration lowered to 15s
- AOE effect now only affects allied non-player controlled creeps
- AOE effect no longer grants armor
- AOE effect now grants +20% damage

Stormspirit
- Can now target all heroes (allied and enemy). Can no longer target Kongor.

Tokens
- Can no longer be sold


Heroes

New strength hero, Balphagore

Behemoth
- Fixed weird shadows with Fissure

Blacksmith
- Fixed some issues with multicast and Frenzy

Chipper
- Voice added. Nuts.
- Tar Toss will no longer apply its slow to Magic Immune units
- Sawblade's staff of the master upgrade no longer provides a static 70% movement speed slow. Instead, units who walk into the saw blades will have a 4 second snare applied to them that starts at 90% and quickly reduces in strength over the duration.
- Sawblade Showdown won't slow couriers anymore

Deadwood
- Clearcutting now causes trees to die with a cooler animation.

Madman
- Barrel Roll will once again grant invulnerability during the duration of the roll

Magmus
- Lava Surge once again provides invulnerability during travel time

Engineer
- Ult to 85s at all levels from 90/75/60

Fayde
- Voice added
- Updated description
- A ton of effect changes
- Slice renamed Cull
- Illusions from Burning Shadows now attacks much faster
- Illusions from Burning Shadows are back to full size
- Illusions from Burning Shadows can no longer be selected or show healthbars
- Cooldown on switching between Scythe and Shadow Stance removed
- Fayde now starts in Shadow Stance
- Charges on Shadow/Scythe Stance increased to 2,3,4,5
- Reflection
* Manacost increased to 150,175,200 from 150
* Duration changed to 30,35,40 from 40 at all levels
* Reflection stealth state will no longer have charges that do nothing
* Shadow Cripple now reduces all healing on the target by 50% while it's active
* Shadow Cripple is no longer dispellable

Glacius
- Updated Ice Imprisonment tooltip to explain that it lasts 10 seconds when casted on creeps

Keeper of the Forest
- Updated Root effect to match the area better

Legionnaire
- Added custom sounds for his charge

Maliken
- Updated recommended items

Ophelia
- Command will no longer give the bonus HP to couriers she has bought or to heroes/herself in weird situations

Pandamonium

- Voice added

Plague Rider
- Voice added

Pollywog
- Units under the effects of Morph can no longer evade or deflect attacks
- Cooldown of Wards changed from 110/95/80 to 100

Pyromancer
- Fixed a bug causing ult to trigger Nullstone twice (causing the cool down to decrease too much)

Soul Reaper
- Rewrote some tooltips

Witch Slayer
- Units under the effects of miniaturization can no longer evade or deflect attacks
- Fixed a bug causing ult to trigger Nullstone twice (causing the cool down to decrease too much)

Valkyrie
- Call of the Valkyrie will now determine the close-range target to get hit twice at the time the ability is used, rather than after a 0.5 second delay
- Tweak leap distance from 630,690,780,840 to 630,720,780,870

Vindicator

- Voice added

Voodoo Jester
- Cask now bounces for 2/4/6/8 times, instead of the incorrect 2/4/5/8 times

Wildsoul
- Wild will no longer apply to his courier

Zephyr
- Correctly credit him for damage that his ult does


Here's a preview of the new hero's ultimate, called "Hell on Newerth":